Romance Books Reviews & Treats

Tall heroine is miffed that her brand-new husband didn’t court her let alone see her after their only meeting. Hero believes heroine with her average looks & good pedigree won’t distract him from his spying endeavors unlike his father. But she is more than what he expected and she isn’t shy about letting him know it. He is even surprised that his big problem isn’t scaring her away but instead is a welcome challenge for her.

-------------SOME SPOILERS: Don’t read if you don’t want to know the book’s details-------------------

If the spy stuff was written better, I’d have rated this book higher. The business with the Royal Four & such was boring so I skipped those parts. Hero’s big problem was much more interesting. But Hero & heroine discussing it & trying things to take care of the problem got too drawn it. There was only 1 fully-consummated sex scene after all that problem-solving. And I wondered how often they actually got to have complete intercourse after that if it took that much effort just to do it once.

I liked heroine’s hardiness & acceptance of her physical features. She didn’t feel insecure with them nor shy away from them. You had to take her like she was. Hero was attracted to her grit & sense of security. They both had a strong physical attraction to each other, with Hero becoming more & more lustful towards heroine. They balanced each other out & believe in their happily-ever-after. I just wonder about their sex frequency though.

Limited recommendation.

Art therapist goes home as soon as she’s told that her grandfather is killed by her mentally-ill twin sister. She doesn’t believe her sister did it and she wants to know who did. Sheriff Hero helps heroine find the culprit especially as it becomes evident that other recent deaths may be linked to her grandfather’s death. Their working together opens up some questions about their past relationship, specifically why heroine left Hero so abruptly 10 years ago.

This was my 1st book by Herron &, boy, it was a trial to get through! There were several times I was ready to throw this book because I was so bored or annoyed with it but I continued in hopes that it may get better. Most of the other reviewers seemed to have no such problems with it. But it never got better than bland for me. The book ended & I wasted hours of my life reading a substandard book.

My first problem with this book was that it lacked the emotional tone that made it neither romantic &/or suspenseful to read. Hero & heroine’s great romance ended because of heroine’s sudden abandonment of Hero due to her family secrets. I never felt their angst from their being separated from each other nor their struggling with their feelings now that they’re seeing each other again. The words tell us they are but it failed to show me how affected they still are by each other. Sexual chemistry was lacking and the times that they’re written in were almost like reminders that this book is also supposed to be romantic. Not good. Even the heroine’s emotions re: her twin sister & murdered grandfather were lacking. This book was so emotionally bland it was like reading a college textbook.

My other big problem with this book was the lack of realism of the murder mystery. For all the deaths in a small-town that hasn’t seen any murders in 20 years, the sheriff Hero seemed to be the only investigator at work. He does sometimes sends his lone assistant (the one who slept with heroine’s sister) to interview others. But Hero handles pretty much the crime scenes, interviews, & murder trails all by himself. What makes it so much more unbelievable is that this is his first homicide and he mans all the other murders he uncovers by himself & solves this long-held & convoluted mystery of the sanitarium all by himself. Plus he usually makes it home in time to have dinner with his daughter. Uh huh. And don’t even get me started on the unprofessionalism of the characters per their jobs. A sheriff divulging his findings with the sister of the main suspect? The psychiatrist discussing his patient’s diagnosis before the consent documentation is signed?...

The only good thing about this book is that grammatically & other technical parts of writing are fine. The story has a good premise but it failed to deliver a believable & thrilling romantic suspense.

Don’t waste your time on this book.

***Reviewed from the Amazon Vine Program***

24yo secretary becomes uncomfortable when her boss of 6 months Hero suddenly starts asking her personal questions especially about her 4-year marriage. She does her best to keep things formal with Hero, given that her unpredictably-violent husband has already leveled accusations about their relationship. Their attraction to each other & her husband's abuse heightens to the point of murder. She is anguished by it all & leaves town, rejecting Hero's pleas for her to stand by him during the court trial. How do they recover from such trauma? Do they have a chance at a future together?

I seriously thought that this book was from the 70s or early 80s. I couldn't believe it was published in 1994! It doesn't fit the typical HP (Harlequin Presents) mold. Reading this book reminded of those Lifetime Movie Channel movies about love & murder. It dealt with issues of disability, alcoholism, domestic violence, codependency, workplace romance, infidelity, & trauma. And then there's murder, court trial, stalking, imprisonment, & amnesia. All this in 210 pages! I sometimes wasn't sure if Hero was a good or bad guy. This book kept me on my toes until the end when everything was explained.

This was definitely a meaty book & I liked it because of that. Many things about this book such as the main characters & cheating were not straightforward. I wasn't sure who was the bad guy or the good guy. Or even if I liked Hero or heroine because things changed as another aspect gets added into the mix.

-------------SOME SPOILERS: Don't read below if you don't want to know the book's details---------------------

The cheating had different elements to it. Heroine was married to a husband who became a very different man after his accident 2 years earlier. He became abusive yet she forgave him every time because she was still holding on to the man she remembered him to be. She had many mixed emotions about her unpredictable husband. Here comes strong & stable Hero who was giving her enough space while unknowingly fulfilling some of her needs she wasn't getting from her failing marriage. The cheating was mostly emotional. There were 2 kissing incidences before her husband died. Her feelings for Hero only added to her growing roller-coaster of emotions. Add in the death of her husband right after he was trying to kill her, followed by a long trial for Hero's manslaughter conviction & his imprisonment and we get a very emotionally-shaken heroine. I really liked that her getting therapy was mentioned at the end. She needed it!

I liked how Lamb strung the reader along with doubts about Hero. I wasn't sure if Hero already had designs for heroine but was being clever about showing it. Or if he really was unintentionally swept along into it just like heroine. It seemed like heroine also had doubts about Hero. She seemed so scared of him that she moved out of town right away after her husband died with specific instructions that Hero not be told where she was going. She even hid from him with help from her family, when she found out he was being released from prison. He seemed really threatening & definitely acting like her stalker towards the end. I wasn't sure how this was all going to end well soon. But it did and I was surprised at how Lamb put it all together.

Read it you're looking for an unpredictable & atypical HP.

Stockbroker heroine takes an indefinite time off her dwindling career to pursue the mining efforts of her recently-deceased uncle who deeded her a 3000-acre West Texas land that may have some silver on it. Although she thought private investigator Hero was a cocky & overbearing playboy, she hires him anyway to fly her over the land & help her find her uncle’s mines. Their helicopter crashing in the desert as well as other accidents aimed at heroine extends their relationship further than she planned. Their time together gradually changes her views of him. It also creates feelings Hero has never felt for any other woman. But are those feelings enough to make Hero commit to her?

------------------SPOILERS: Don’t read below if you don’t want to know about the book’s details--------------------------------

I rated this book higher than Against the Wind and Againt the Fire. The action-suspense part was more exciting & not as predictable in this book. And I liked the main characters better in this book too. Heroine was smart, feisty & independent yet soft (although I could’ve done with a little less of her crying incidences). She had an adventurous spirit and courage even when scared or uncertain. She also didn’t sugarcoat things & told Hero how it was, even if it meant that she’d be rejected or hurt by him. She did it because she wanted honesty in their relationship and knew she was going to go on if Hero no longer wanted to be with her. And she did. She warned Hero how things were going to be if he still wasn’t ready to make a commitment to her by the time the culprits were found. He wasn’t ready so she breaks it off with him immediately after he told her the good news about the culprits. And I liked how she told him to not contact her or stop by to see her. Make it a clean break. I also liked that she didn’t pine for him helplessly. She cried many a tears & was very despondent days after she broke up with him. But she also agreed to a lunch date with the man who’d been showing interest in her for a while. No doormat is this heroine.

It was at first unsure about Hero’s affection towards heroine. He was certainly physically attracted to her, admired her for her intelligence & personality, and cared about her well-being when her life was threatened numerous times. But when his old supermodel girlfriend showed up unexpectedly at his house, he introduced heroine who he’d been sleeping with nightly in his house as merely his “client”. I had great doubts about Hero’s emotional attachment to heroine at that point. He had big issues with life commitment and being with heroine didn’t seem enough to make him turn a corner with romantic commitment. It wasn’t until after she broke up with him that I became more convinced that maybe he still had hope. Hero pined for her in a grouchy man way. His life & his home felt empty like never before & thoughts of seeing other women “turned his stomach”. I became convinced that he really was in love with heroine when he finally told her his uncertainties about his future & declared his love for her. It was particularly telling that he proposed marriage right away instead of choosing to just live with her like his friend suggested until his future was more certain. That was a satisfying ending.

Recommended.

***Reviewed from the Amazon Vine Program***

25yo business owner is aghast to find out that her teenage crush is back in town & planning on residing there again. She’s successfully avoided him the last 10 years after overhearing him talk about her infatuation with him with his grandfather. But now she’s thinking of moving to avoid having Hero wreck havoc with her feelings again, especially when the eventual time came that he get married & started a family with another woman. Her recent interactions with Hero served to show her how intensely she still feels for him, no matter her cold attitude & cutting remarks towards him. But does Hero’s seeming change of heart towards her repair the hurt she suffers for her unrequited love?

This Jordan book was mostly written through heroine’s POV (point of view) & it was emotionally-moving. It was heartbreaking to know about the huge devastation she felt at age 15 when she overheard 22yo Hero talking about her crush on him with his grandfather. It was poignant to see her struggling with her adult feelings for Hero & trying to hide it by acting coldly towards him. The heroine’s POV absorbed me into what she was going through, including her sexual awakening. We get to see a bit of Hero’s side but towards the end & that helped balance out the book & the romance. Reading about his side informed me that he had his romantic struggles about heroine as well. I loved how their romance finally unfolded at the end. What Hero had to say to heroine made what she overheard 10 years before make sense. This was a poignant & sexy book.

Recommended.

Abducted heroine is drugged & given to duke Hero as a gift from the people of his seaside village to appease his anger towards them for their smuggling activities. Heroine sets Hero straight on who she is when she wakes up. Yet it doesn’t remove his suspicions about her being part of the nefarious group he’s been after as an assassin. As they wait for her kidnapper’s letter, they get to know each other & unravel his unemotional assassin stance. Their affair draws them even closer despite Hero’s warnings that what she doesn’t know about him will repulse her. How does heroine convince Hero of her love for him?

This was a solid romance with some Indian-Jones type of action. Heroine’s innocence, strength, honesty, & persistence made her the right partner for strong & hardened assassin Hero. It was neat to see Hero’s resistances to her love weaken the more she showed him that his bad & dangerous side doesn’t scare her away. Their sexual chemistry & sex scenes were hot but the book focused more on the building of their emotional intimacy. The action part was written well and kept my interest. It was thrilling to read about the obstacles the encountered to reach the key for the valuable documents they were after. Their success highlighted heroine’s intelligence in cracking the codes * Hero’s physical prowess.

Recommended.

Dressmaker h hides her scandalous identity as the daughter of the earl who became known as the Thief of the Ton by creating a false name & background. She’s doing her best to increase her business with the upper class women by making the bridal trousseau of the sister of the viscount Hero. Hero at first thinks heroine is trying to deceive her sister financially but his attraction for her is what drives him to find excuses to see her. He asks her to be his mistress but she refuses even though it’s tempting. She eventually relents to a secret affair but Hero is finding that a secret affair with her is not enough for him.

I enjoyed this book overall. The writing made the characters alive. They were realistically portrayed with strengths & imperfections and pulled me to care about them. But the middle part of the book with the bridal-dress talk & such bored me a bit so I thought this book would end up being an average read. Fortunately the romance progressed with more intensity towards the latter part. Hero’s character, his feelings for heroine, & his striving to be with her as much as he could cinched my interest in this book. I could feel his fervency in making her happy & being with her. He did his best to silently support her endeavors yet was vocal about wanting to be with her. He was also a sweet man who doted on his younger sister & helped her with her future in-law situation to make both her & heroine happy.

One other thing I didn’t like about this book was how modern the attitudes were of heroine & other female characters regarding female independence, especially financial independence. Although it could certainly have occurred, it was too convenient to have that many women heroine happened to meet to share her beliefs.

Recommended.

Burn-unit nurse falls in love with patient Hero whose face got burned due to his car colliding with her father's car. She finds reasons to visit him in his cottage, one of which is to plead with him to go easy on her financially-strapped father in court. Artist Hero is frustrated with his inability to paint & his obsession with the girl he saw a few minutes before the car accident happened. He takes out his frustration on heroine who he's either arguing with or kissing. How do these 2 end up together?

-----------------------------SPOILERS: Don't read if you don't want to know details--------------------------------------------------

This Lamb book was about a romance with cross purposes: heroine wanted Hero & Hero wanted another girl who was really the heroine. Heroine was infatuated with Hero & pushed herself into his life as much as she could. Hero's attraction to heroine seemed matter-of-fact: he thought about her only when she was present &, when he did, he was mostly annoyed with her. On the other hand, he kept thinking & dreaming about the girl he saw before the accident (his dream girl). He talked incessantly about his dream girl to heroine (who didn't know yet she was his dream girl), while displaying minimal interest in getting to know heroine. He kissed heroine once & told her it was because he was thinking about his dream girl. So, when he professed that he loved heroine at the end, I shook my head in disbelief. I didn't buy it. His declaration of love for her came immediately after she told him that she in fact was the girl he saw before the accident, his dream girl. He only softened up & showed real interest in heroine after her confession. He was in love with his dream girl & not the heroine. Heroine provided the face & identity of his dream girl. If his dream girl ended up being somebody else, he wouldn't have thought twice about heroine after that. Heroine was lucky that she realized she was the girl he was obsessed with or else she'd have no chance with him. I also doubt heroine's love for Hero. She was definitely attracted to him sexually. Neither of them spent enough time or knew each other enough to be in love with each other. They still have a chance at love and happily-ever-after once they truly got to know one another.

Minimally recommended.

29yo heroine is kissed by a 24yo stranger who answered her ad for a husband in the Farmer’s Gazette. She declined his offer since her older brother doesn’t think Hero is suitable & wants her to reconsider her former beau for marriage. She was involved in a scandal 10 years ago with her former beau & has been trying to reform her life since. But Hero’s bold remarks & seductive maneuvers are playing havoc with her attempts at a respectable life. What choice does she ultimately make and what repercussions will it have?

This is my 1st Fresina book & I felt out of sorts when reading this book. At 1st the writing & plot seemed unique, unpredictable, & promising. I liked how quaint & picturesque the locales & minor characters of the book were. But more than halfway through it became apparent that this was more an ambling & rambling about H & h’s village life & broken references to their past. What seemed unique & promising became aimless & boring. There was such looseness to this book--a back & forth writing about the characters, plot, emotions, location, & time. I got tired of it & was ready to chuck this book about 2/3s of the way through.

Heroine’s character was a mess. She seesawed unpredictably between being outrageous, wanton, defiant, and devil-may-care to restrained, temperate, and socially conforming. She seemed logical & responsible in one instance and then impulsive & unthinking the next. It made her look like a crazy person…and maybe she was. Her jumping off the balcony 10 yrs before is an example of her oddity. I still don’t understand why she did it because she wasn’t suicidal nor was she pushed nor driven to it—it was 1 of those rambling & loosely-tied moments in the book. There was an inconsistency about heroine’s defiance & her seeming to conform to her family’s demands. There was no rhyme or reason as to why or when she defied or conformed. We, the readers, were just supposed to know when we read about it. This was one of the most aimless books I’ve read in a while. I was also bothered by heroine constantly blaming Hero for making her do scandalous things with him & Hero thought it was cute & was patient with her indecisiveness. Yet heroine held a lot of power. She dangled Hero & her ex-boyfriend & pretty much did what she wanted, whether her family liked it or not.

Hero was more tightly-written but there was still a lot about his history & his character that was a mystery but not in an intriguing way/more of an unclear/confusing way. He’s a beta Hero with a lot of mystery. The only sure thing about him is his obsession with heroine. He idealized her since he 1st saw her at age 14 and, upon meeting her 10 years later, treated her in an indulgently patronizing way. I didn’t feel the love but certainly his strong attraction towards her.

Minimally recommended.

28yo widow is trying to go forward with her newly-found freedom due to her controlling husband’s recent demise when her first love Hero visits her after shunning her 10 years ago. Hero believed her father who told him that she wanted to marry another man, even though just the day before she was declaring her love for him & promised to marry him. Her father’s confession spurs Hero to finally read the 3 unopened letters she sent him 10 years ago. He promises to help her find the 3 artifacts her late husband’s will requires for her inheritance. Will the time they spend together now give them another chance at love?

-------SPOILERS: Don't read if you don't want to know specifics------

Alexander’s writing failed to move me. It lacked the intense emotional tone to fit the very angtsy premise of the romance--Hero & heroine’s teen romance to be severed due to being forced to marry a man blackmailing her father, Hero believing her father’s lies about heroine wanting to marry someone else & not fighting for her, & for heroine’s letters pleading Hero for help to be unread by him until 10 years later when her father confessed the truth to him. Really heartbreaking stuff. But it didn’t even move me as it easily should’ve because the writing was distancing. I was reading the angst but not feeling it. There was also repeated talk of Hero needing to grovel for the omissions & wrongs he’s done to heroine. He did make amends but in practical ways (i.e., helping fund the expeditions to find the 3 things her late husband’s will demanded, not pushing her to forgive him/being his friend as she desired, doing his best to get her the 3 artifacts, loosening up from his stodgy & dull earl ways & becoming again more like the man she fell in love with 10 yrs ago). I like drama & like to feel the angst when it is present but his groveling was not dramatic. It was all very mature, poised, & practical. I wish Alexander milked the angst for all…or even half…it was worth.

I liked how Hero & especially heroine changed in their 10 years apart. Heroine became a very strong & independent person inside. She survived 10 years of being abused & controlled by her possessive husband. She escaped by reading about places she’d like to visit & making a list of things she’d like to do. In a way, the lack of felt angst could be explained by heroine’s control of her emotions & inner strength since much of the book was through her point-of-view. But it diminished the impact of her emotional journey & only gave us the part of heroine that was strong & compartmentalized. I like some emotional mess & vulnerability when reading about my romance characters. It makes for a more moving read.

Partially recommended.

34yo bookstore owner suddenly realized that she’s in love with her longtime friend since childhood. 35yo firefighter Hero kissed her when he was drunk & depressed due to a traumatic firefighting event and that kiss instigated changed her feelings for him. Unfortunately, Hero wasn’t fazed by their kiss and was fine with their friendship. He soon meets & becomes instantly enamored with the long-lost sister of his best friend who wasn’t shy about letting him know of her interest in him. Competition for Hero’s favor motivates heroine to send him amorous secret letters & eventually reveal herself as his secret admirer. How will Hero respond to her big reveal?

This book reads more like a chick-lit than a small-town romance novel. It was sometimes uncomfortable to read because I felt sorry for the heroine. At other times, I was irritated with her & Hero. Heroine had an unrequited love for Hero who only saw her as a friend and who had eyes for the new hot woman in town. I felt sorry for heroine for it and also because she had to really assert herself in order for him to even take notice of her as a woman. It was as if being herself—simple, quiet, & unassuming—wasn’t enough. I get stepping out of your comfort zone in order to grow but that wasn’t the case for heroine. Her reason was to attract Hero’s attention and not for her self-growth. It seemed debasing for heroine to vie for his favor because she was desperate & afraid to lose him to the gorgeous & aggressive other woman. Hero wasn’t showing any interest in heroine other than their usual friendship at that point. Her revealing that she was his secret admirer only bumped her up in the competition. He took what she offered immediately & had sex with her within the same hour of her reveal. He still was not committed to heroine & was torn between her & the other woman. It didn’t take much for the other woman to get his attention. In fact, he let this other woman literally drag him away from heroine on their first date after they first had sex. He had the chance to say “no” to the other woman but didn’t & even let her kiss him twice on the ferris wheel, knowing heroine was in the vicinity. Hero was insensitive, unsure, & passive about doing the right thing...Not my kind of hero.

Heroine wasn’t a total pushover when it came to Hero. I was thrilled when she saw that she was worth more than what Hero was willing to give her & put a stop to their friends-with-benefits relationship towards the end. But she seemed to have regressed at the end. She easily gave in to Hero’s sudden i-love-you speech on the dance floor. He hadn’t shown her any other actions aside from his public declaration of love that he truly was now totally into her & only her. I still wonder if Hero would've still chosen heroine if the other woman didn't give up on him. Hero needed to show heroine (and me, the unconvinced reader) that he’s changed from his impulsive & indecisive ways. He was wishy-washy with his career & romantic relationships. He was struggling with insecurities & made impulsive decisions that made him feel guilty & regretful later. So his sudden realization that he was in love with heroine & then declaring his love for her 5 minutes later (plus a marriage proposal) seemed like another impulsive action on his part. It made me wonder if he’d come to regret doing that later, especially when things quiet down between him & heroine or when he felt controlled by her again.

Minimally recommended.

***Reviewed from the Amazon Vine Program***

Baby-store owner agrees to spend 1 month with her ex-boyfriend Hero for 2 million dollars. Hero wants to make amends & see if they can rekindle their r/s after he rejected her 2 years ago because he believed she was the woman in the sex tape video he saw. She doesn’t make it easy for him as she keeps reminding him of how he mistreated her in the past. Hero banks on their strong mutual attraction for each other & his continued apologies over the past. But heroine seemed changed & he doesn’t know how to breach past her barriers. What difference will it make for them when Hero finds out about the baby heroine lost soon after their breakup?

I had high hopes for this Milburne book. It started out with a bang, with Hero just realizing what a huge mistake he made in not trusting heroine when she claimed it wasn’t her on the sex videotape. And Hero setting out to fix his mistakes at whatever the cost. Our introduction to heroine was very promising also. She was a successful new business owner & she was stalwart in anger & unforgiveness over what Hero did to her. She wasn’t going to be the naïve & biddable doormat that she was 2 years ago. She was going to make him work for his apology. Then, she agreed to spending a month with him…for $2 million! I had to re-read that page a few times because it seemed so out of character from the strong & unshakable attitude heroine had about not letting Hero run roughshod over her ever again. Her agreeing to spend time with him for money was a huge regression over what I thought was a major backbone & character development with this heroine. It just made her look like a gold-digger & prostitute…exactly the kind of person the Hero mistook her for after the sex-videotape brouhaha & the reason he broke up with her. It would’ve been a stronger book & made me continue to sympathize with heroine if she agreed to spend that 1 month with him without the money involved.

The book was still angsty though due to the loss of their baby girl. It was heartbreaking to read about it, especially when Hero found out about her. It was at that moment that Hero began showing his vulnerability to heroine. Ironically, it was the loss of their baby that made heroine a stronger person. It was amazing for her to go through with the pregnancy knowing their baby was going to die anyway. The imperfection of their baby, the inevitability of her death, & the fact that heroine still cared for & loved that baby were the catalysts that broke through Hero’s ideals of perfection. Knowing heroine loved their imperfect baby & stayed with her for the few hours of her life healed his wounds from being rejected & left by his own mother. They became equals from that point on. I expect a good future for these two with continued openness & vulnerability.

Partially recommended.

26yo heroine goes to Seville to let down the holiday fling of her 18yo cousin. Her cousin believes that her holiday fling wants to marry her & interfere with her relationship with her current boyfriend. The imperious brother (Hero) of her cousin’s fling mistakes heroine for her younger cousin & berates her for seducing his brother for monetary means. Heroine doesn’t correct Hero’s mistaken assumption in order to protect her cousin. How will knowing heroine’s true identity affect Hero’s response towards heroine?

This book was first published in 1983 so the attitudes & behaviors of the characters of this book reflect the cultural mores of the 1970s. Still, it doesn’t negate the fact that heroine a huge enabler who covered for her spoiled & frivolous younger cousin. Heroine uses up her own money & vacation time from work to do her cousin’s dirty work of turning down her ex-boyfriend. Then she deceived Hero by letting him believe she was the one who had an affair with Hero’s younger brother. Heroine wanted to save her irresponsible cousin from the verbal degradation Hero was heaping on her.

Hero was not much better. He was an arrogant & judgmental person who treated heroine coldly for fear that he’d start blurting out the feelings of love he had for her. Instead he’d rather make her feel like a promiscuous gold-digger or a non-person by switching between verbal put-downs and neglect. I truly do not get why either heroine or Hero fell in love with the other. Their interactions with each other were negative & what they knew about each other were not love-inducing. For example, Hero reacted with contempt & rejection upon finding out that heroine was a virgin on their wedding night. He largely ignored her a few months after their wedding night until their i-love-yous at the end. His sudden declaration of love for her at the end came out of nowhere. Heroine bought it but I didn’t. Hero will definitely the dominant one in their relationship with heroine kowtowing to him or else risk his wrath & rejection again.

Minutely recommended. Keep in mind it was written in 1983.

It's been 13 years since heroine last saw her high-school sweetheart Hero. He leaves their small town after she caught him cheating on her with her older stepsister. He's back in town to be the stand-in vet for 6 weeks. He wants to apologize to heroine for his past misdeeds. Seeking her forgiveness becomes complicated, however, when he finds out that his sexual indiscretion with her stepsister produced twin girls whom heroine's been raising with the notion that Hero wanted nothing to do with them. Ironing out their past & figuring Hero's r/s with his twin daughters intertwines their lives much more than either of them bargained for.

This book flowed well & was a fast read. Unlike other books with small town locales, the other characters didn't detract from the romance. They actually helped shape the romance of the main characters. Hero's fear of committing to heroine, for example, extended to his fears of being accepted by their small-town community. Even the sexual chemistry & sex life of Hero & heroine were widely scrutinized by the residents. It wasn't so much comical as it was a fact of life in a small town of 600 people.

The romance was angtsy due to Hero's betrayal of heroine. It took awhile to get the whole picture of exactly why Hero chose to have sex with heroine's stepsister that day. I expected it to be a huge ordeal due to Hero's repeated hints about it. But when he finally reveals what it was, I was appalled at how weak it was. Unfortunately, heroine bought it & forgave...more like excused...Hero for it. Still, I couldn't wrap my head around Hero having sex with her stepsister after just having met her for an hour, no matter how bad his day went. He claimed to be in love with heroine & made plans with her regarding their future. There's no excuse for it. He just made a colossally bad choice. What's more he didn't even bother using protection with the stepsister because he assumed she'd be on birth control due to the kind of woman he thought she was. And he didn't bother finding out if she got pregnant or not. Hero was an irresponsible & careless 17 year old so his youth & immaturity can be blamed for his rash actions. What I didn't find excusable was for a 30-year-old man to not show up to his twin daughter's eagerly-awaited birthday party without any notice because he had another bad day. I mean, it doesn't take much to call & let them know he couldn't make it. He just failed to show up. This served as an omen to Hero & heroine's future. I can foresee Hero making another asinine decision in the future & hurting heroine as a result because he got some terrible news that sends him running away again. He has a long history of running away from commitments & sabotaging his relationships. It may be a good start for him to stay in their town, commit to being the permanent vet, & marry heroine. Yet he still has a long road ahead to showing his staying power as a responsible husband & father. It will again be the heroine who will have to make the choice of forgiving Hero, encouraging & waiting for him to grow up, & be the stability in the household. Basically, I see a HFN(happy for now) but a questionable HEA(happily ever after) for Hero & heroine.

Moderately recommended.

**Reviewed from the Amazon Vine Program**

Four years after they breakup, heroine asks Hero to be tested for bone marrow compatibility with her sickly half-sister. Confirmation that heroine’s half-sister is also his blood relation serves to bring them closer to each other since Hero insists on being a continual presence in his newly-found half-sister’s life. Their past r/s is dredged up which makes Hero account for how he treated heroine 4 years ago. Will the truth be enough to make her trust him with her heart again?

The Hero in this book is 1 of those false martyrs. He sacrificed his own freedom & happiness by marrying his brother’s pregnant on-off lover because he wanted his brother to have a stress-free marriage to his then-fiancee/now-wife. The problems with this are that:
1. it shows that Hero loved his brother much more than heroine who he’s been dating for a month & who gave her virginity to him.
2. Hero callously dropped heroine a couple days after the only time they had sex & didn’t think he owed her the truth about why he was marrying the OW (Other Woman).
3. his brother didn’t ask Hero to help him re: his ex-lover. In fact, his brother had no clue that he got his ex-lover pregnant & that she bore his son. Hero never gave his brother a chance to solve his own dilemma. And he never gave him a chance to get to know his own son.
4. it makes Hero look disloyal to his brother. It must’ve disturbed his brother to find out that Hero must’ve cheated with his ex-girlfriend(OW) due to the baby’s due date.
He also was going to forego his 2nd chance with willing heroine because he didn’t think he’d be a good husband & father. This “sacrifice” would’ve made sense if he actually had a real 1st marriage but he didn’t so this insecurity was pretty unfounded to me.

Heroine was TSTL(too stupid to live). She was more upset that Hero dumped her after their 1 night together than finding out that Hero had another woman on the side while they were dating & who he got pregnant & was now marrying. Heroine stayed away from other men for 4 years after Hero dumping her so cruelly. Yet she didn’t put up much resistance to Hero’s seduction. In fact, it was Hero who limited their intimacy the 1st few times b/c of his guilty conscience. Heroine would’ve had sex with him right away if it wasn’t for Hero stopping their foreplay. I don't like heroines like her who don't have much respect for themselves & who will let Hero set the pace for their r/s.

Aside from their sexual chemistry, there’s not much health with this couple. But I could see an HEA(happily ever after) but it’s one with lots of sacrificing, insecurities, & constantly reassuring each other that they're still ok. Ugh.

Minimally recommended.

Lounge singer gets shot while helping her brother with his clandestine meeting & goes to her ex-BF Hero to recuperate. Hero helps her yet gets frustrated with her reticence to tell him the truth about how she got shot & believes it’s tied to the case he’s been working on. Being with each other again sparks their long-held attraction to each other & pain from their breakup 2 years ago. Do they have a better chance at a future together this time around?

This Rosnau book had a good premise but the delivery needed polish & better organization. The transitions between the romance & the action-suspense was distracting. I had to pause a few times to piece together where the romance & suspense last ended. The action-suspense part was weak & didn’t evoke realistic danger for me. I could’ve done without it and the romance would probably have read more strongly. Hero was supposedly the case’s lead investigator & top detective of the police force but you wouldn’t have thought it from how he behaved with heroine. He let many things slide even though he was very suspicious of heroine & her brother’s involvement in the case. Her whole reason for showing up unexpectedly at his house after their breakup 2 years ago was because she had a gunshot wound. Yet he easily let her off the hook with her lies. It wasn’t so much because he was protecting her but because he was playing mind games with her.

Hero & heroine were quite emotionally immature. They both played mind games with each other. They often lied, deceived, & goaded each other about their sexual/romantic involvement with other people to gauge how the other is being affected. Hero’s reason for breaking up with heroine & his emotional decline from that was not consistent with his callous treatment towards her when they were reunited. I didn’t feel the depth or supposed intensity of Hero’s obsession for heroine. The explanations say he was but his actions toward heroine varied. He did stay celibate during their 2 years apart (and so did she). Sexual chemistry simmered between the two but their mind games & her mistrust towards Hero prolonged the eventual sex scenes which were average in steaminess.

Partially recommended.